Who Really Rules: Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq governs Pakistan under martial law. Although his Military Council rules through a civilian bureaucracy, Zia has no sizable popular support. If he were to permit an open election, the "populist" Pakistan People's party (PPP), which he overthrew in 1977, would win easily. (In April, 1979, Zia's government executed PPP Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, having charged him with complicity in murder.)

Ethnic and religious distrust divides the population. Ethnic Sindhis (Bhutto was Sindh) and Baluchi seek greater power from the Punjabi-Pushtun army.

Though Pakistan has historically had close relations with the U.S. and Communist China, Saudi Arabia appears to be its closest ally today. Pakistan provides trained manpower for the Saudi armed forces, and most of the 1.4 million overseas Pakistani workers are employed in Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states.